It's taken three years, but America has finally graduated
from being "a nation of whiners"
in 2008 to "a nation of slackers" in 2011 — at least, that's what Rep. Steve
King (R-IA) believes we've accomplished. In a floor speech yesterday afternoon,
King railed against safety net spending because it's "ridiculous" to say it
boosts the economy, and because it's out of keeping with the biblical dictum
that "He who would not work, would not eat." Later, King added that "we can't
have a nation of slackers" where we "borrow money to pay the welfare of people
that won't work."

REP. STEVE KING: United States of
America borrows money and hands it to people and tells them, you don't have to
work for this. You don't have to produce anything for this. We just want you to
spend it. That's your patriotic duty, to take the money that we borrowed from the
Chinese, and the debt burden we put on our grandchildren, and put it in
people's hands and say it's a patriotic thing, take your food stamps and take
your rent subsidy and heat subsidy and your unemployment check, and go engage
in commerce, that's patriotic. Um, no? [...]

The former speaker of the House, Speaker Pelosi, has consistently said
that unemployment checks are one of those reliable and immediate forms of
economy recovery, that you get a lot of bang for your buck when you pay people
not to work, and they will go out and spend that money immediately, therefore
we should pass out unemployment checks and stimulate the economy. That
statement is ridiculous where I come from, Mr. Speaker. To pay people not to work, and somehow in that formula it
stimulates the economy. [...]

The 80 million Americans that are
of working age but are simply not in the workforce need to be put to work. We can't have a nation of slackers and
then have me have to sit in the Judiciary Committee listening to them argue
that there's work that Americans won't do, so we have to import people to do
the work that Americans won't do, and borrow money to pay the welfare of people
that won't work. That is a foolish thing for a nation to do. We've gotta get this country back to work
and get those people out of the slacker rolls and onto the employed rolls.

Perhaps more importantly, King insinuated that the entire
Democratic plan for economic growth is simply to hand out more welfare checks.
That's false. Over the past two years, President Obama has proposed combinations
of working-class tax cuts and direct federal spending into the economy, with
the end goal of boosting demand. He's done that because demand is what
businesses and job creators say they need most when you ask them. In the process,
he's cut taxes by almost twice
as much as President Bush did in his first term.

Yes, spending levels for safety net programs have risen in
the wake of
the financial collapse and the looting of our economy by fraudulent mortgage
lenders. Yes, there are millions of able-bodied Americans out of work. But if
King thinks that's because the jobless are "slackers," and not because there
are about four
job seekers for every opening right now even as companies put their money into dividends
rather than hiring, he's in denial.

Watch (full transcript below the fold):

REP. STEVE KING: United States of America borrows money and hands it to people and tells them, you don't have to work for this. You don't have to produce anything for this. We just want you to spend it. That's your patriotic duty, to take the money that we borrowed from the Chinese, and the debt burden we put on our grandchildren, and put it in people's hands and say it's a patriotic thing, take your food stamps and take your rent subsidy and heat subsidy and your unemployment check, and go engage in commerce, that's patriotic. Um, no? What's patriotic is, carry your own weight. I mean, John Smith said clear back then in the 1600s, No work, no eat. That also's part of the New Testament, where he lifted that from I believe is Galatians, He who would not work would also not eat. And that doesn't mean we don't wanna take care of people who can't help themselves, but people who can help themselves need to help themselves and all the rest of us.

We're hearing the statements come out of people that generally sit over on this side of the floor, Mr. Speaker, this belief that economic stimulus— the former speaker of the House, Speaker Pelosi, has consistently said that unemployment checks are one of those reliable and immediate forms of economy recovery, that you get a lot of bang for your buck when you pay people not to work, and they will go out and spend that money immediately, therefore we should pass out unemployment checks and stimulate the economy. That statement is ridiculous where I come from, Mr. Speaker.To pay people not to work, and somehow in that formula it stimulates the economy. [...]

The 80 million Americans that are of working age but are simply not in the workforce need to be put to work. We can't have a nation of slackers and then have me have to sit in the Judiciary Committee listening to them argue that there's work that Americans won't do, so we have to import people to do the work that Americans won't do, and borrow money to pay the welfare of people that won't work. That is a foolish thing for a nation to do. We've gotta get this country back to work and get those people out of the slacker rolls and onto the employed rolls.